@Max: I did not know that this cool gadget did not make enough noise (news) yet in US. Last year, I was part of the organizing committee for organizing an annual tech day for the embedded engineers in our org. While we were scratching our head to decide on what should be a cool memento idea for the paper presenters, somebody came-up with the idea of Power bank as the gift (there are some Indian companies manufacturing this too). Everybody liked this idea and people who had got this on that day also expressed happiness!! :)

@_hm: BTW, Active-Semi makes the SoC ICs (ACT2801 and ACT2802 in this family) that enable the design of PowerBanks. So it is not an accessories company or one that makes the powerbank end-product itself. Re safety, these SoC ICs offer battery charge/discharge management, safety/protection for over-voltage, over-current, short-circuit and over-temperature fault conditions, and can shut down as needed. The accessories or end-product manufactures can take advantage of the safety features offered by these SoC ICs while implementing their powerbank products. For more info, please visit www.active-semi.com/powerbank too.

I have no idea -- I'll ask the folks at Active-Semi to comment here -- but my understanding is that this the the whole reason you'd want to use an Active-Semi SoC as the controller in your power bank -- because it's designed to ensure safe charge and discharge.

Arrow and Linear Tech recently offered the Zoom Energy Square powerbank as a promotional item to the first N respondents. I was lucky enough to get one. It has 8 or 9 different plugs for all the different devices out there. But none for the Microsoft Surface RT which i am evaluating at the moment. Cue my unhappy face!